49ers trainer has come long way since Pacific

Manny Rivera has worked for his favorite sports team for nearly a decade.

Bob Highfill

Manny Rivera has worked for his favorite sports team for nearly a decade.

The 34-year-old Pacific graduate grew up in Benicia as a fan of the San Francisco 49ers. Now, the Milpitas resident is in his ninth season as an assistant athletic trainer with the team.

Last Sunday, Rivera and the 49ers arrived in New Orleans to prepare for Super Bowl XLVII against the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday at the Superdome.

"It's a business trip," Rivera said prior to boarding the team flight out of San Jose International Airport. "We're going with just one goal in mind."

Rivera might not be a player or coach, but he is a valued member of the team, helping players stay healthy and treating them when they are not.

Rivera got his start at Pacific. He chose to go there, in part, because his older sister, Rowena, graduated from the university's pharmacy school. Rivera became interested in a career in athletic training and graduated from Pacific's school of sports medicine in 2001. At that time, Pacific had a close relationship with the 49ers, as the university hosted the team's summer training camp from 1998-2002. In 2001, Rivera received a summer internship with the 49ers. Then he earned a graduate degree from Indiana University and worked one year for the United States Olympic Committee before the 49ers hired him on a full-time basis in 2004.

"Pacific was great," Rivera said. "When I was at UOP, at first I was just trying to get my degree to make my parents happy. But then I got energized. I met some great people who taught me the clinical and academic sides of sports medicine and how to be a professional."

Rivera learned under Sharon Sell, who left the university in 2007 to help raise her family, and Chris Pond, who is in his 22nd year in the sports medicine department at Pacific.

"I've watched him in action and (the 49ers) are appreciative of him and they trust him," said Pond, Pacific's director of athletic training. "He has a really nice blend of working with high-caliber professional athletes and being patient and not getting pushed over."

Rivera works closely with team doctors and the players, helping treat and rehabilitate injuries, setting up training and nutrition programs, and ordering supplies and packing them for road games. He also hires and supervises interns, a group which almost always includes Pacific students.

"(Pacific) got me started on this journey of athletic training," Rivera said. "We still keep in touch, and I try to give back and try to hire one UOP student every summer for our training camp."

The league's enhanced protocols for recognizing and treating head injuries haven't affected his job, Rivera said, because the 49ers always have had strict guidelines for such injuries. Lawsuits filed by former NFL players allegedly suffering from the effects of repeated hits to the head during their careers have put player safety among the top priorities of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

"We will never put them out there if they're not safe," Rivera said. "That's not a negotiable thing. That's how we go about it, and the organization and the players know it. No questions asked.

"We feel good about that."

Rivera said he has to separate the fan inside him from his duties as an athletic trainer. He tells his interns from the moment they step inside the 49ers' facility, they have to act professionally. Rivera said it's a clear and necessary distinction. Rivera has worked closely with quarterback Alex Smith since he was the team's No. 1 overall draft pick in 2005. Rivera said he sympathized with Smith when he suffered a concussion in Week 10 against the Rams and lost his starting job to second-year sensation Colin Kaepernick.

"I know it's tough, but it's part of the job," Rivera said. "I haven't talked to Alex about it. But if someone gets benched or doesn't play well, we have to stay positive. We always put a positive spin on things to keep them going."

Rivera said the 49ers' comeback win over the Falcons in the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 20 in Atlanta was one of the highlights of his tenure with the team. Rivera said he and his colleagues stood in stunned silence immediately after the game before the reality of going to the Super Bowl hit them.